Fire and Eyes
by kelly4
Summary: Written for the 12 Days of Clois Christmas challenge - prompt word "fireplace". Lois hates Christmas. And she's totally over Clark Kent. Except neither of those things is really all that true.


The roof of the Daily Planet.

Yeah, that should be high enough.

Even Tess Mercer, cold-blooded boss and Lex Luthor minion, couldn't survive _that_ particular fall.

Lois grinned evilly at the thought. Yes. Perfect.

Because, really, Tess deserved it. First of all, the boss lady had informed Lois four days ago that she'd be spending Christmas Eve driving to Podunk, Oklahoma, all so she could cover this big traditional children's hospital celebration there on Christmas Day.

Imagine that. She'd managed to put the words "Tess", "children", "hospital", and "celebration" in the same sentence. That had to be a sign of the apocalypse.

Not that she had anything against children's hospitals and their traditional celebrations. She just wasn't all psyched up to drive a gazillion hours in horrible weather on Christmas Eve to cover it.

Though, it wasn't exactly like she had big Christmas plans anyway. As usual.

But still, it was the _principle_ of the thing. She just knew that Tess was trying to annoy her. Was it Lois' fault that a psycho killing machine had overtaken her cousin's wedding, almost mortally wounding her new husband and then kidnapping Chloe? Seriously, it's not something you can give appropriate notice for. So she had gone to Star City to care for Jimmy in Chloe's absence. Surely anyone would understand that.

Okay, so maybe she had gone to Star City for _more_ than just sitting vigil at Jimmy's bedside. Maybe a _little_ part of it had been to create some distance between her and the ridiculously gorgeous farmboy that she was _so over_.

And speaking of the farmboy in question, reason number two why Tess had an appointment with the sidewalk in front of the Planet.

Because early this afternoon, as she was getting ready to leave, he'd sauntered, yes _sauntered_, up to her with that obnoxiously charming smile that he really needed to learn to control, saying Tess had assigned him to the story, too.

She had, of course, been bewildered, and then disbelieving, ready to storm off to see the Luthor wannabe for herself, but Clark had stopped her, saying Tess wasn't in the building, she was in Smallville at the mansion, and really, they didn't have time to stop there, they should really be getting on the road as soon as possible. After all, there was a snowstorm headed their way and it would be smart to get moving, try and get as far into the trip as possible before the bad weather hit.

She had narrowed her eyes, reluctantly agreeing with him before beginning to mutter to herself about practical farmboys wearing plaid, slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking out of the bullpen, with Clark trailing behind her, smiling.

Now, four hours later, she was sitting in his truck, driving through a blizzard, and listening him hum along to the seemingly endless stream of Christmas carols blaring through the radio.

On second thought, the roof of the Daily Planet may not be high enough.

She turned to face him, her eyes focusing her best glare on him.

Stupid, sentimental, Christmas-carol-humming, devastatingly handsome and unbelievably charming Smallville.

Inwardly, she groaned at herself for allowing those last two thoughts to enter her line of thinking.

Because she was over him. Really. Honestly. Truly.

Except, she totally wasn't.

When she had arrived back at the Daily Planet, she had successfully avoided him for a day or two, before he managed to force her into some face time. Face time in which she had laughed off their near-kiss at Chloe's wedding, chalking it up to two lonely single people getting caught up in the moment. Sure, he'd told her, actually insisted several times, he was done with Lana Lang, and honestly, she believed him, though she still tossed out a barb here and there to get him going.

But the truth was, she just wasn't going to go down that road. Lana showing up when she did, regardless of whether Clark and she had gotten back together or not, was like a big flashing neon sign to Lois.

It just wasn't meant to be.

And after several nights of crying herself to sleep in Star City following her day-long visits with Jimmy, she had finally come to accept it.

She loved Clark Kent, but it wasn't going to happen. She had to let it go, and move on.

And so began the process of Lois Lane's denial. Telling herself at every opportunity that she was completely over him. Throwing herself into her work, giving him minimal opportunities for conversation or to get even remotely close to her personal space. Keeping things light, snarky, and pretty much related to work when he did happen to get her into a conversation.

She told herself that eventually, things would get back to normal. Their friendship would fall back to where it was before the insanity of the last few months.

But for now, distance was best.

A fact that seemed to be lost on Tess, who decided that sending Clark on an out of town assignment with her was a brilliant idea.

Tess was so dead.

Because here she was, sitting closer to him than she really would have liked, considering the circumstances, and listening to him hum those stupid carols and willing her heart not to melt at his adorable dorkiness.

Which just happened to be wrapped in an insanely sexy package.

"Is there any Christmas carol you _don't_ know?" she finally snapped, irritated at her innermost thoughts for not cooperating with her denial.

His eyes glanced away from the road for a second. He simply flashed a quick grin and shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess not."

And then he started humming again.

Lois didn't know whether to forcibly grab the wheel, steer the car over to the side of the road and jump him or drop kick him out of the driver's seat and leave him among the rapidly grown snowdrifts.

Sighing at the fact that neither was a viable option, she reached forward and slammed the off button on the radio, unable to stop herself from grinning as Clark's humming trailed off once he finally realized there was no more music to accompany him.

"Wow, the Grinch has got nothing on you."

"Please, just because I've had my fill of sappy Christmas songs after four freakin' hours doesn't make me the Grinch, Smallville."

"Whatever you say, Lois. I just notice that you're not exactly in the holiday spirit. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen you in the holiday spirit."

"You know what? Why don't you stop worrying about my holiday spirit and worry about getting us to wherever the hell it is we're going without driving us into one of these snowdrifts?"

Clark cleared his throat, glancing toward her for a moment before turning his attention back to the increasingly snowy and icy road. "Yeah, speaking of that, I'm thinking maybe we should stop for the night."

"What? It's only 7:30. It only takes what, another four hours to get there?"

"In this weather? Probably more like seven. It'll be easier in the morning, once the roads are plowed."

"Let's just go a little further, and see how it is, maybe it'll let up," she said hopefully. Not that she was in any rush to get there, but it just seemed like a better idea for her to be stuck in a car where his attention had to be on the road than stuck in a hotel where they'd have to find something to occupy themselves for the next few hours.

Her eyes fluttered closed at that, feeling the heat begin to redden her cheeks. Leave it to her traitorous mind to go directly to the gutter.

She took a deep breath and willed _that_ particular mental image to leave her mind.

"Look, I saw a sign for an inn a mile or two back, let's just stop there."

"If you're afraid to drive in this, just let me drive for awhile."

"With your track record of hitting things? No way."

She could feel the anxiety mixed with fear beginning to bubble up inside her as the annoying click of the blinker signaled that they would, indeed, be stopping for the night.

And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about.

As the small inn came into view through the flurry of snowflakes, Lois groaned.

Clearly, she was in hell.

A hell called The Hollybrook Inn, complete with millions of sparkly Christmas lights, a Santa in his sled with his reindeer poised for take-off on the roof (and yes, including a shiny red-nosed Rudolph), and two rows of large candy canes lining the walk to the main entrance.

"You know, they might be booked," she said, a note of hopefulness in her voice.

"Well, we won't know if we don't go in and ask," Clark said cheerfully, which made Lois want to clock him. Or kiss him.

Yeah, she had to stop doing that. Thinking like that was not in any way, shape, or form helping her denial.

They got out of the car and made their way to the front door, with Lois grimacing at the lit up candy canes that acted as their guide.

It got no better once they got inside.

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" blared through the quaint, and very decorated lobby. Wreaths of gold, silver, and green hung on a door leading to what appeared to be a gift shop, another one on a door to the bar and restaurant. Little snowmen littered each corner, and green garland covered with holly berries was strewn along the top of each wall.

She closed her eyes, almost sending a silent prayer that they were full, because even driving through a blizzard seemed like a better option right now.

"Hey, it looks like they've got hot chocolate over there, why don't you go get us some and I'll see if they have anything available," Clark said, gesturing towards a small table tucked into one of the lobby's corners.

"Fine," she muttered, oblivious to the small grin that adorned his face as he watched her go, making sure she was out of earshot before he headed to the front desk.

Grabbing two red cups, Lois poured each of them a generous cup of the hot cocoa, then using the tongs provided to toss a couple of marshmallows into each one.

Picking hers up, she practically growled. Even the stupid cups were decorated, as she spotted little white snowflakes and silver bells on each red cup.

If she'd allow herself to admit it, Clark was right. She was being a massive Grinch. And the thing was, she didn't _hate_ Christmas. In fact, she loved it. Or, at least, she wanted to.

It's just, she'd never had a _good_ one. A _real_ one. The General wasn't exactly into the holidays, especially after her mom died. And as she got older, she always felt like she would be intruding if she horned in on any friends' or family's Christmas celebrations – even when she was invited.

So Christmas for her usually consisted of a strand or two of lights, a frozen lasagna, some cocoa, and maybe a viewing or two of "A Christmas Story" – which, of course, always made her tear up, even as funny as that particular movie was.

No, it was more that she resented Christmas. Resented that she didn't ever have the carols, the decorations, the family and friends around a fire laughing and reminiscing, the delicious treats and creamy egg nog.

And her resentment seemed to manifest itself in making her the Grinchiest Grinch that ever Grinched.

Sighing, she lifted the cup to her lips, taking a long sip of the delicious hot chocolate. She grabbed Clark's and turned, only to find him walking up to her.

And the look on his face made her worry.

"So, what's the deal?" she asked.

"Um…well, we can stay."

"Great," she said, laced with sarcasm.

"There's, um…just one thing."

"What?"

"Well…, they only had one room left."

Lois had a feeling that, at that moment, she looked like one of those cartoon characters whose eyes got as big as saucers when they were surprised.

"Oh, hell no, Smallville."

"Come on, Lois, it's just one night," he said, taking the cup of hot chocolate from her and taking a sip.

Yeah, he was way too relaxed about this. And she hated that, because she was practically jumping out of her skin at the prospect of spending the night in the same room with him.

She glanced at the woman behind the front desk, and then back at him. Setting her shoulders in determination, she began to walk toward her.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

She stopped, whirling back around to face Clark.

"You're too nice Smallville, you just accept whatever people tell you. I, however, don't. I'm sure they have another room available, and I'm going to make sure we get it."

"NO! Lois, um…wait. Look, um…," he paused, and she watched him, a bit puzzled at his reaction. "They're really kinda swamped because of the storm, I don't think we should bother her," he said, nodding towards the woman in charge, who was currently on the phone.

"Clark…" she began, her tone exasperated.

"Look, she said there's a couch in the room, alright? I'll take the couch, you take the bed."

Her eyes narrowed at him, before she turned back to the front desk.

"Come on Lois, what are you afraid of?"

Turning back toward him, she noticed the grin on his face. Oh, so that's how he was gonna play it. Damn him, he _knew_ she couldn't back down from a challenge. Especially a challenge coming from him.

"Afraid? Me? Please, Smallville," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Great," he said, and she didn't miss the slightly smug look on his face at his victory, irritating her. He handed her his cup of hot chocolate as well as their room key. "You go up and get settled, and I'll go get our bags," he said, smiling at her before striding out the front door.

Taking a slightly exasperated and frustrated breath, Lois began to trudge up the, of course, festively decorated staircase to their room.

***

**A half hour later**

She couldn't rest her eyes on one place in the room without cringing.

Seriously, the whole room looked like Santa threw up all his holiday cheer into it. Not to mention the onslaught of sentimental carols being piped into to the room.

Oh she was sure underneath the festive trappings the room was probably charming. And romantic. The large bed was centered on the far wall, facing a gorgeous, old-fashioned stone fireplace – she'd already sent Clark out to get more wood, feeling the inn had not provided nearly enough.

As for Clark, after he'd returned with an armful of wood, he'd resumed his humming along to the music playing in the room.

"Hey," he said, finally taking a break from his musical stylings and flopping down on the bed. "Did you see this?"

"See what? Sorry, I've been too distracted by all the _festiveness_," she grumbled.

"This," he waved the flyer in his hand slightly, " It's all the things they have going on here, you know, for Christmas."

"Unless it includes getting tanked on rum-soaked eggnog and passing out, thereby becoming mercifully oblivious to all this holiday cheer? I'm not interested."

For a moment, she could swear she saw a flicker of…something in his eyes. Sadness? Hurt? Worry?

But just like that, it was gone, and replaced by that blinding smile of his that made her insides melt like ice cream on a summer day.

"Come on, Lois. Even the Grinch ended up giving Christmas a chance. Hey, look, they have a couple of movie channels programmed for nothing but holiday movies. There's a big tree-trimming party down in the lounge in about an hour. We could even go on a sleigh ride in…"

"Don't tell me," she said, holding a hand up to cut him off, "a one horse open sleigh. Right?"

"How'd you guess?"

She rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding?"

He just chuckled good-naturedly in response. "Yeah, they certainly are into Christmas here, huh?"

"Lucky me," she snarked.

And this time, she was sure saw it. It lasted only moments longer than the last flicker, but it was definitely there. It was almost a look of …dejection. But for the life of her, Lois couldn't understand what she'd said or done to put that look on his face.

Okay, she wasn't exactly all 'comfort and joy' tonight, that was for sure, but still. It was hardly news to him, given that he'd been in her company for the last several hours.

He cleared his throat, tossing her a tentative smile.

"How about some college football then? I think there are a couple of bowl games on," he offered, his voice tentative and laced with the barest hint of sadness.

Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable. Like she'd done something to hurt him but couldn't figure out what exactly – and that bothered her. Because regardless of where things stood between them, sure she'd been avoiding him and yeah, things were awkward at best, she'd never want to hurt him.

"Um, sure," she said, jumping up, feeling a bit restless at the tension that suddenly seemed to pop up between them. "I'll whip us up a fire."

"I can do that, Lois."

"Smallville, I got it. You work on finding us a good game to watch."

She grabbed some logs and tossed them into the hearth. They were damp, which wasn't going to make it easy for her, but at least it would give her a distraction from whatever it was that had settled over them in the last little while.

Taking the long red lighter from the mantle, she held it near the logs, and clicked. After several attempts, she reached in to adjust the logs, and tried again.

"Too damp," she muttered, wiping her forehead in a bit of frustration.

"Huh?"

"What? Oh, nothing, it's just the wood's a little damp, that's all."

When she turned around to face him, where he was currently sprawled on the bed, she saw him grin.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. "You just look like you got into a little fight with the logs," he added, gesturing to her forehead.

She looked down at her hands, noticing the ashes and dirt covering them.

"Oh. Yeah. I'm just gonna go wash this off…" her voice trailed off as she headed into the bathroom to wash up. She closed the door behind her, taking a look at the damage in the mirror. Sighing, she quickly washed her hands under the water, using one of the inn's washcloths to take care of the ashes on her forehead.

_Here I go again on my own…_

She jumped slightly, the telltale sound of Whitesnake emanating from her cellphone startling her. Reaching into her jeans pocket, she looked at the number and quickly snapped it open.

"Chlo? What's wrong? Are you okay? Is Jimmy okay?"

"Jeez, Lois, relax, I was just calling to check in."

"Oh," Lois responded, relieved. "Sorry. Guess you two are still on my worry list."

"Understandable, but we're both fine, I promise. How are you?"

"Just peachy," she said dryly.

"Do I even wanna know?"

"Probably not."

"So, how's the Hollybrook?"

"Chlo, this place is like Christmas on crack. I mean, really….," Lois stopped suddenly, Chloe's words dawning on her. "Wait a minute. How did you know where I was?"

Her question is greeted with an extremely loud silence.

"Chloe Sullivan-Olsen, I asked you a question."

"Um…Lois? Jimmy's calling from the other room…," Chloe said, and Lois could clearly hear the nervous evasion in her cousin's voice.

"Chloe!" Lois exclaimed through a clenched jaw, so as not to draw Clark's attention from the other room. "Start talking."

"Lois…I…."

"Now!"

She heard a sigh on the other end of the phone, followed by another silence, which more than likely meant her cousin was weighing her options. After about a minute, Chloe finally spoke.

"You can't tell Clark I told you, okay?"

"Fine. Whatever. Spill."

"Well…you didn't exactly end up there by accident. Clark…he sort of planned it."

"What? How? Tess just assigned him to the story today."

"Um…actually? She didn't assign him to the story at all."

"What?!?"

"Two days ago, Clark went to Tess and, well, he sorta begged her to let him go with you on this assignment."

"But…why?"

She heard an exasperated sigh come from her cousin on the other end of the line. "You know, Lois, for an investigative reporter, you are incredibly oblivious sometimes."

"What the hell does that mean? You know what? Never mind. So Tess apparently agreed."

"Yeah."

She waited a few moments, Chloe clearly not wanting to continue. But Lois was not about to let her stop there.

"Chloe?"

"Before I tell you this, you have to promise me you'll remember how much you love me, cuz."

"Chloe, what did you do?"

"Okay, um…well, Clark asked me about a couple days ago why you were in such a horrendous mood."

"And what exactly did you tell him?"

Silence.

"Chloe?" Lois asked, her irritation growing at her cousin's reluctance to continue.

"Just…keep in mind that I only told him because I love you and you've done so much for me the past few weeks and I wanted to do something nice for you," Chloe rambled quickly.

"What did you tell him?" Lois asked, an edge of nervousness in her voice.

"I…I told him about your Christmas issues," Chloe said quietly.

Her eyes widened at that, and Lois sinks back, leaning against the edge of the sink.

"What exactly did you say?" she asked, her voice eerily quiet.

"I said that Christmas is a hard time of year for you, because after your mom died, The General wasn't exactly into the whole holiday thing, and while you tried to make the holidays nice for Lucy, it was hard because you were so little. Eventually, you just kinda gave up, which wasn't hard to do on army bases, since they aren't the most festive places. And that you sorta grew to resent Christmas and all the holiday cheer because you really wanted that kind of traditional thing, but you never got it. Even though I invited you and the Kents invited you over the last few years, and you always turned us down, because you felt like you'd be intruding, which, I will say again, couldn't be further from the truth. So this lovely mood you end up in every December is just your way of dealing with your perennial holiday disappointment."

Lois exhaled softly, closing her eyes.

"I can't believe you told him that."

"Yeah, well I did," Chloe responded, a hint of defiance in her voice. "And I'm glad I did, because it got Clark to do something instead of whining about the fact that you've barely spent five minutes with him since you got back from Star City. He decided that since you never really had an old-fashioned, traditional Christmas, he'd give you one. That's when he went to Tess and got himself assigned to the story. Then, he found that inn on the way to Oklahoma. And believe me, he did his homework. He found the most Christmas-y one he could. He even had several excuses planned as to why you would need to stop for the night, since he knew you'd planned to drive straight through."

"But…why would he do all this?" she asked softly.

"And we're back to the oblivious thing," Chloe snarked.

"Huh?"

"Lois, since you've obviously missed it? Clark Kent is ridiculously in love with you."

"What? Chloe…you're crazy," Lois responded, though her heart definitely picked up speed at her cousin's words.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Tell me, Lois…how many rooms do you have tonight?"

"Um…one," she said weakly. Hmmm, suddenly him not wanting her anywhere near the woman at the front desk was starting to make sense.

"Exactly. The guy went completely out of his way to plan this perfect Christmas for you, well as perfect as it could get being as you were gonna be on an out-of-town assignment, books _one_ room in this quaint little romantic inn, and you're honestly going to tell me that isn't the work of a man in love?"

Closing her eyes, she rubbed her forehead gently.

"Well that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Why he looked like I just kicked his puppy before. Or, well Shelby, in this case."

"Oh, Lois…please don't tell me you're giving the Grinch a run for his money."

"Right now, I'm making the Grinch look like Santa himself."

On the other end of the phone, she heard Chloe chuckle at that.

"Chlo?"

"Yeah?"

"Did he actually say…you know…"

"That he's in love with you? No. But I'm not blind. To either of you. Contrary to what you both may think, I saw the way you were looking at each other at the wedding, and I saw just how close you were to kissing before Lana showed up. But I also know you, Lois, and even though you know Clark is over her, you're terrified to let him in. So you avoid him like the plague and throw yourself into your work and try to convince yourself that you're over him."

Lois sighed at that. Her cousin _did_ know her all too well.

"So, cuz, let me give you some Christmas advice. Go and fix it. Because if you let Clark Kent slip through your fingers? You'll regret it for the rest of your life."

Her eyes drifted up toward the door, a resolve beginning to overtake her as a plan formulated in her mind.

"Thanks Chlo."

"Merry Christmas, Lo."

"Merry Christmas, baby," she said, a slight smile on her lips as she snapped her phone closed.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the door handle, quietly inching the door open. She watched as he came into view, still sprawled on the bed, a sad, almost resigned expression on his face.

God, she totally _sucked_. Clark Kent was the nicest guy in the freakin' world and she'd managed to totally screw up his Christmas, not to mention ruin the surprise he'd planned for her.

Setting her shoulders back with determination, she walked into the main area of the room.

"Hey, sorry I took so long. Chloe called," she said, a small smile on her face.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, she just called to say Merry Christmas."

"Oh."

A silence fell between them, and Lois tried to break it by clearing her throat, earning her an odd look from the man on the bed.

"So, um…I'll be back in a bit, okay?" she said, grabbing her purse.

"Yeah, okay," he said, the glumness in his voice not lost on her.

With a small smile, she opened the door to their room.

He wasn't the only one who could plan a surprise.

**

**20 minutes later**

"Clark, can you give me a hand?"

She nudged the door open with her hip, her arms loaded down with several large bags. He jumped up off the bed, looking at her strangely.

"What's all this?" he asked, taking some of the bags from her.

Tossing her purse onto a nearby chair, she began to unload them, answering him as she went.

"This," she said, holding up a very large jug, "is some of their special, and I do mean _special_, eggnog that I managed to sweet talk out of the bartender. And these," she continued, holding up two Christmas tree tins, "are sugar cookies, complete with all of this," she said, two plastic bags in her hand filled with various tubes and containers of frosting and sprinkles, "to decorate them with. And this is the last tabletop tree they had in that gift shop downstairs, with all of the decorations they could scrounge up for me. So," she said, motioning to the small mini-bar, "grab some glasses and start pouring."

The look on his face would be one she would remember forever. His blinding smile was enough to make her heart do about ten thousand flip flops, and the happiness emanating from his eyes was all the Christmas gift she needed. As she set the small, fake tree on the table, he cracked open the tin of cookies, handing her one along with her glass of eggnog.

They spent the next hour indulging in holiday cheer. In attempting to decorate the cookies, Lois had found it much more amusing to squirt the frosting at Clark, so after declaring a truce, they had decided just the plain sugar cookies would be a safer route (and probably better for the cleaning staff in the morning). Clark had retaliated though, hitting Lois with a few flying mini candy canes, which Lois complained were supposed to go on the tree. He had good-naturedly teased her about her military upbringing when, in true General's daughter's fashion, the trimming of the tree had practically turned into a strategic military operation.

Finally, they both collapsed onto the bed, with Lois grabbing the remote.

"Another football game?" Clark asked.

"Nope. I figure with all the holiday movies, my favorite has to be playing on one of these channels."

"_You_ have a favorite holiday movie?"

"Don't sound so shocked, Smallville. I do, and it's obviously the best one ever made."

"Let me guess. _It's a Wonderful Life_?"

"God, no."

"Hmmm. _Miracle on 34__th__ Street_?"

"Nope. _A Christmas Story_."

He looked at her strangely. "Never heard of it."

"You've _got_ to be kidding me. Smallville, that's…that's un-American! Well," she said, finally finding a station that was carrying the movie, albeit already in progress, "you are about to be educated, my friend. This? Is a classic."

She had turned her attention to the movie, her legs tucked under her as she sat on the bed next to him. After a few minutes though, she could feel his eyes on her.

"Um, Smallville? You're gonna have a hard time appreciating the movie if you don't watch it."

"Chloe told you, didn't she?"

She closed her eyes at the quietness of his voice. Biting her lip slightly, she turned toward him.

"Yeah."

Clark simply nodded at that, looking down at his hands in his lap.

"Look…"

"No, Clark," she interrupted, instinctively reaching out and placing her hand beneath his chin, gently lifting his eyes to her. "Seriously? This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me. I'm just sorry I ruined more than half the night by being so, well, Grinch-y."

His eyes softened, his lips beginning to curl into a teasing smile.

"So…what you're saying is I made your heart grow three sizes?"

Laughing, she rolled her eyes. "Something like that."

She began to take her hand from his face when he grabbed it, interlacing his fingers with hers. Her breath caught in her throat, noticing the affection in his eyes changing into something much more intense.

She could feel her heart begin to pound furiously, watching as his eyes glanced down toward her lips, his head beginning to tilt slightly as he moved forward…

"The fire!"

Where the hell had _that_ come from? Clark clearly had the same question as he shot her an odd look.

"Um…we never tried to start the fire again," she mumbled, unlacing her fingers from his and jumping off the bed. She felt herself wobble slightly as she landed on her feet, annoyed at herself for interrupting what was obviously a moment between them – not to mention a chance to finish their interrupted kiss from weeks earlier -, and yet somewhat relieved because it unnerved her how much Clark Kent was affecting her and she needed a chance to get her bearings.

She walked over to the fireplace, knelt down and jostled the logs around. Grabbing the lighter, she clicked it, muttering when the logs failed to catch fire. Turning, she snatched one of the discarded paper bags and began tearing it up, stuffing it under the logs, hoping that would help. When she clicked the lighter again, the paper smoked a bit, but the still damp logs kept it from becoming anything remotely resembling that 'open fire' the Christmas carol went on about.

"Lois…why don't you let me do it?"

"Clark, I can start a stupid fire. While other fifteen year old girls were hanging out at malls and getting their nails done, I was recruited by the General to go to an outdoor survival retreat. I can start a fire with a two twigs and a piece of thread," she grumbled, clicking repeatedly on the lighter.

"But clearly, logs and a lighter present a problem for you," he teased.

She wiped her hair roughly out of her face, leaving behind a smudge of ash on her cheek. Standing, she turned to Clark, hands now resting on her hips.

"Oh, you think you can do better?"

"I know I can."

Her arms moved from her hips to cross defiantly in front of her chest.

"Prove it."

"On one condition."

"A condition?"

"Yeah. You have to agree to go out on a date with me. Before I start the fire."

She blinked quickly at that, a little shocked. Just when she thought she had him pegged as the sweet, shy, bumbling farmboy, he totally caught her off her game with that confident, sexy side of his that was beginning to appear more and more in recent months.

Smirking slightly, she glanced back at the still damp logs, knowing full well that regardless of whether or not he started that fire, nothing would stop her from ending up on a date with him.

But he didn't need to know that.

"Okay, Smallville, you're on. You start that fire, and you've got yourself a date."

He flashed her a heartstopping smile, nodding in acknowledgement, before turning his attention back to the fire. She watched him as, for more than half a minute, he seemed to just _stare_ at it. From about 8 feet away.

"Um, Clark? Don't you think you might need to, oh I don't know, actually get [i]near[/i] the fireplace if you wanna…"

And, that's when, mid-sentence, she's stunned into silence as she feels the telltale comforting warmth of heat licking at her cheeks. Slowly, she glanced back, and her eyes widened at the tall flames crackling in the fireplace. Her jaw dropped open as she suddenly whirled back toward him.

"How…how did you…?"

Grinning at her with an intoxicating mix of pride and shyness, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Um, yeah. So, Lois? There are a few things I need to tell you."

**The End**


End file.
